How to Find and Hire a Developer - Tactics that Work

If you’ve decided to launch a website or an app, you probably thought about how to hire developers who can help to turn your idea into reality. Whether it will be an in-house team or an independent programmer depends on your preferences as well as budget and goals.

In this blog post, we will consider various methods of how to find good developers and make your cooperation fruitful.

For many companies hiring software engineers can be a real challenge. For young startups, it can be particularly hard as very often due to tight budget they can’t afford the so-called trial-and-error period. So when hiring developers for a startup you should make the right decision at first attempt.

Before you decide to proceed with recruiting process and hire a software developer, make sure that you’ve considered the next steps:

1. Know your development platform

In order to save time, budget, and avoid iterations, choose the platform you want to develop for. You should focus on your target audience and technical features that you want to have in your product. For example, you want to hire a programmer to make an app and you need an application on iOS, thus you may hire iOS app developer who has expertise in XCode development environment. The iOS developer should clearly understand and operate Apple Developer Guidelines in order to make sure that your app won’t be rejected. On the other hand, if you decided to hire Android app developer, ensure that he/she has strong knowledge in JAVA programming language.

2. Create a well-written job description

Start by writing a clear job offer. Avoid using long lists of job requirements and responsibilities. Focus on candidate’s career growth and benefits. Make your candidates interested in your business and excited about opportunities within your company.

3. Freelance websites

If you want to hire freelance developers, consider these websites to find your potential candidates:

Upwork(formerly oDesk). Browse Upwork to find your specialist in the ocean of top notch talents from all over the world. Hire freelance developers and pay them per hour.

Toptal. You’ve probably heard about Toptal - a freelance development environment where you can get in touch with a designer or a software engineer who can help your business to scale. Toptal is a great international resource that can help you to hire a programmer to make an app or a website.

Freelanceris the leading crowdsourcing marketplace by the number of users and projects. You post your project on the website, choose a proper specialist, and pay once you are happy with your results.

GitHub

GitHubis the biggest social network where you can check samples of code. Developers use GitHub to exchange their current development projects. If you are looking for specialists experienced in open-source projects or want to collect more detailed information about potential candidates, then make sure to include GitHub in your checklist.

Design associations

BehanceandDribbleare great examples of designers networks and communities. If you are looking for a web designer or want to hire a mobile app developer, you can search these sources. You will definitely get inspired and discover numerous portfolios of amazing talents.

Using Behance you can find high-level designers, view their art projects as well as see whether candidates are available at the moment.

With Dribble, you can track designers’ works in progress. You can also use “explore by tags” features and filter your search. It’s very easy to contact designers through their Dribble accounts where you can find designer’s location as well as their professional websites.

We’ve examined several steps on how to find good developers. Now let’s move on and have a look at methods that you can apply during the hiring process.

1. Find developers passionate about their work

Computer geek who is obsessed with programming and learning new stuff. Great programmers adore what they do. They used to code after work, at home, during their lunchtime or even vacation. For them, this is their lifestyle and not just a method to earn a fortune. They are very enthusiastic about their work. They learn new programming languages not because they are obliged to but because they are computer madmen.

Software development is a constantly progressing sphere. Each year new technology appears thus replacing the old ones. Due to this, the standards of IT sphere change constantly and finding app developers or software engineer is becoming a real challenge.

Besides looking for amazing talents and software rockstars, don’t neglect programmer’s soft skills, which are extremely important in the business environment. A really good developer should be:

Remember that you should not search solely technical geniuses but also people who will be a cultural fit for your company. This will make the working process smoother and more effective.

2. Check their portfolio

Ask your candidate to share his/her previous projects and don't be lazy to ask for references from previous employers.

Very often, when you examine your candidate’s resume you come across a long list of various programming languages, platforms, and technical skills. However, the number of real development projects you can count on the fingers of one hand.

You can access GitHub and delve deeper into developer’s account. You will see the project to which he/she contributed as well as the way an engineer writes a code. This is a great means to check samples of candidate’s code and evaluate his or her from a technical perspective.

Check if the UI/UX of their apps is user-engaging? An effective and aesthetically pleasing UX is considered to be the half of your app or website success.

3. Ensure your developer understands your business

This is one of the crucial steps in choosing your perfect candidate. It’s important that a programmer sees the idea behind your project thus speaks the same language with you.

4. Give a test project

The best way to check developer’s skills and expertise is in practice. Give a programmer a real project to test his or her approach to work as well as technical skills and time management. This is the less risky method to consider when hiring software engineers.

5. Ask rational questions

You don’t need to be a technical wizard to hire a developer. Check you potential candidate fit and capabilities by asking right questions.

Can you describe your last projects

An experienced and qualified engineer can easily provide you with examples of past projects and apps that he/she created. A qualified developer will be eager to share the links to App Store and Google Play. In case you deal with a novice, your candidate should be honest about his/her contributions to the development of apps.

Who were your clients

Speaking with your future candidate about his/her clients can be very helpful and demonstrate how the person handles and communicates during the development process. Pay attention to developer’s tone when he/she talks about the projects: if he or she speaks excitedly and can share real examples from working practice it means a lot. You can always ask for references as well as contact with previous employers through social media channels.

How to implement monetization process

Your future programmer should know how to implement monetization features into the app as well as how to reduce software development time. By the way, you can read about ways of monetization here. In case you wonder which model reduces the cost of development of software, follow this link. If it’s important for you to make money on your app, then finding the developer who is familiar with such methods can speed up the development process.

Describe how we will interact during the development process

In order to make sure that your developer is on the same page with you, get deeper into how he/she will communicate with you during the development process. To be maximum effective and successful, you should focus on the candidate who communicates consistently, collects feedback, deals with obstacles, and sticks to agile methodology.

How will you test and maintain my app after it’s launched?

Create the app is half the business. What comes next is testing and maintaining it. Testing should occur during the development process. User support should be 24/7 after the app launch. In this case, a single freelance developer can’t guarantee a full-time maintenance, while a web development company with a QA team and support desk can assure a much stronger and polished outcome.

What is important for the developer?

According to the Stack Overflow, the largest community for the developers, once you have a perfect candidate and you want to continue your cooperation, remember about the job opportunities. Among the most crucial are ability to learn and advance, have an opportunity to work remotely, and use of agile methodology. When it comes to technical talents, there is a huge supply-demand disparity. In fact, there is 1 available developer on 5 potential jobs. As of April 2017, there was 98% employment rate.

Cost Factor

You should consider cost factor as the most important when you want to hire a mobile app developer or a software engineer. It depends on programmer’s technical competence as well as years of experience and location. Usually, staff developers earn more than freelances. Hiring a software company or a mobile app development company is the most expensive option but at the same time the most trustworthy. The reason is that when you hire a company you hire a team of engineers, designers, QA, project managers, and business analysts. For any project, the cost of hiring an app or web developer depends on such components as the scope of project, area, and platform. In many countries, the cost of hiring software development company is too high. For this reason, it is preferable to outsource software project to another country that is capable of developing a product less costly.

As an example, let’s consider Eastern Europe. The quality of software development and the knowledge of software engineers are considered to be the highest and advanced globally. This is like winning a lottery because at the same time the price for IT services are among the cheapest compared to the USA or Western European countries. An average hourly rate in Eastern Europe varies between $25-40. It includes such countries as Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Baltic states.

Summing up, remember that most important is to build relationship and communication with your employees. Find someone whom you can rely on and who is interested in growing your business. Focus on the value that developer can bring instead of cost. At Agilie we understand client’s needs and always strive to build collaborative relationships. Click here to learn more.

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